Friedrichstrasse And Then...

I was just walking the city, fucking freezing because it's cold and again, I wander and float, often directionless and blind until things work out and I wind up where I'm meant to be. Not long ago, I had to get to the Gitte Weiss galley by 6 to rap with a woman I know through another woman that used to cut my hair before I started doing it myself and not paying 70 dollars - even if she was an artist with it, which she was. Now she comes to my spin classes, told me I had to go see Gitte. I told her I would, and made it sometime around 530 and we talked about the town and the things I had to see before I go, in the time I have left. The location was in a beautiful and elegant part of town and I tried not to take too much of her time, this incredibly kind and warm woman, maybe 50's, telling me about when to go out and to never rush it - that the good times don't start until well after 1. If I didn't have a date tonight, I would have taken her and her husband out, at least to dinner, made them tell me more about their lives and thanked them for their brief but memorable hospitality.

The following is a piece that caught me - a diagram of the human body we sent up or drew on one of the Apollo shuttles to explain to aliens what we're all about - made entirely of IKEA furniture. The implications are heavy and clever, the piece so beautifully constructed...

I had to say goodbye though, because like I said I've got a date with a German girl, so kind I'm not even going to talk about how beautiful she is. In spite of what you might think of me, the former trumps all. Always.

I met her today in Hackecher Markt so she could give me the ticket before running to get her hair done - because I think she's in the show and I think it's going to become very red. I honestly have little idea and it doesn't matter. All I know - she's looking out for me and taking care of me and pulling me along and that's not an easy thing to do - to step out of the tight lives we live and say stick with me you'll be alright. Fuck, the thought of it. She's better than I would be, I'm almost certain of that...and makes me want to commit to being better. Tonight, I get to be someone's American boy and I'm excited about that. I plan on honoring her for that. The place were going is supposed to be pretty infamous for Berlin and once her show is over, we'll stay or go and it won't matter and we'll see. I am free and things are right.

John is still sleeping somewhere across town. This behavior is pretty par for the course. He blows it out the first night, gets a little too deep and then rallies late in the game for night 2. I'll see him tonight, sometime in the 1's or 2's and he'll be sinister and he'll have plans to bury everything in our past with something epic and present. It's a lot to live up to, a lot. I know it, he knows it.

Things could be worse.